In 1984, Drs. Bob Chen and Katy Irwin learned that an international health professional who had been accepted to their Epidemic Intelligence Service was at risk of losing her financial support for this two-year program in applied public health and epidemiology. Because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was not authorized at the time to provide financial assistance to foreign nationals for this applied public health training, the two young physicians decided to address this gap by establishing the Atlanta International Health Fellowship (AIHF).

With help from other EIS Officers, employees, and retirees of CDC and Emory University and Atlanta residents, they raised funds and formed partnerships with Emory University and Villa International Atlanta that have provided tuition and lodging support for many years. Since the first fellowships were awarded in 1991, 25 individuals from over 22 countries have received stipends to cover costs of tuition, lodging, medical insurance, or transportation to receive applied public health courses sponsored by CDC or Emory University.

In 1997, the Tull Charitable Foundation made a major grant to the AIHF that enabled the Atlanta International Health Fellowship to become the first endowed fund at the CDC Foundation.

The CDC-Hubert Global Health Award, endowed by the O.C. Hubert Charitable Trust is designed to encourage students to think of public health in a global context. Established in 1999, the original fellowship provided an opportunity for third- and fourth-year medical and veterinary students to gain public health experience in an international setting. Hubert fellows spent six to twelve weeks in a developing country working on a priority health problem in conjunction with CDC staff.

In 2020, the fellowship transitioned. Now called the CDC-Hubert Global Health Award (Hubert Award), it provides a financial award for competitively selected medical and veterinary students who successfully complete CDC’s Epidemiology Elective Program (EEP) and demonstrate a commitment to global health through their EEP project assignment.  The Hubert Award is given annually to up to seven EEP graduates, Recipients receive a monetary award of $1,000 each.

Since its inception in 1975, EEP has provided approximately 2,100 future physicians and veterinarians opportunities to gain experience with applied epidemiology and public health under the mentorship of CDC subject matter experts. EEP students have helped investigate domestic and global public health problems such as infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters, chronic diseases and limited access to health care. Students often participate in surveillance, analyze data, assist with outbreak investigations and contribute to CDC publications and recommendations. Project assignments in global health have largely supported CDC’s mission to protect domestic public health by helping other countries respond to global health threats. This competitive program offers 6- or 8-week rotations largely based at CDC headquarters. 

Updated information for the 2023 cohort should be available starting Fall 2022. Please check back then. For questions about the Epidemiology Elective Program, please visit the CDC page.